Establishing Public-Private Partnerships for a Community College in a Rural Area - Coursework Example

 Organizational Research: Establishing Public-Private Partnerships for a community college in a rural area Background and description of the organizational issue Community empowerment involves building capacities for community members in order for them to raise their collective voice, action, strengthen pro-poor governance, create awareness, access to information, and prevent violence against women (Wilcox, 1994). Community empowerment in most cases is done through a community college. A community college is a type of institution that is established in the community for educational purposes by a private investor, by the government or both. Most community colleges are engaged in adult education where personal development courses are offered with an aim of empowering members (Kasper, 2002). In most cases, it becomes significantly beneficial when the stakeholders in charge of management of community colleges establish public-private partnerships in the management and running of a community college especially in rural areas. Public-private partnership is an institutional relationship between the state and the private sectors, in a profit or non profit making venture (Spackman, 2002). In this partnership, private and public players participate jointly in attaining their set objectives and devise methods and implementation strategies for of their mutually agreed projects. According to Gordon and O’Neil (2004) Public-private partnership is a variation of privatization but different in that it functions like a private business but the government has some interventions in the operation of the organization. Public private partnerships are based on real delivery phase of the project where, in a simple tender, the government will have to bear responsibility by giving its intended guidelines. When procuring large projects such the college infrastructure, the government has to choose between tax revenue and user fees. The countries such as the United States, Northern Europe and Japan have preferred the tax-based approach where general tax revenue, earmarked fuel taxes or other form of taxes are used to fund projects in the partnerships (Gordon & O’Neil, 2004). Moreover, countries like the Italy, France, Spain and Portugal alongside many developing states prefer user fee which are collected in the form of tolls for the purpose of financing the community college projects (Gordon & O’Neil, 2004). The public-private partnerships involve more open relationships where a college can be encouraged to propose alternatives instead of a mere provision of a service. In this case, a private operator will often need to design the best solution using the specifications provided by the government (Spackman, 2002). The other part that a private operator can provide in the college is to offer technical expertise and provide financial arrangements for the project and the possibilities of the operational risks associated with the project. While most studies have concentrated on the requirements for a successful public private partnership in other sectors, few have come out to study the possibility of public private partnerships for a community college in the rural set up. . In this study, the possibility of public private partnerships for a community college in a rural area will be researched with the aim of analyzing the financial impact. The study will enable the college to explore and determine which partnership would work for the community at large and enable the college attain its goals in the rural areas. Significance of the study Barlow, Roehrich and Wright, S. (2010) have agreed that in public private-partnership, public procurement and privatization are at the opposite ends defined by the extent of service obligations imposed and the ownership of assets although they are closely related. In this case, where most community college in the rural areas have been run by public procurement or full privatized management, public private partnerships comes in hardy. Moreover, in public-private partnership, the criteria relied on in choosing private partner are very complex than the exercise of just choosing who offers the best prices and conforms to the technical specifications (Spackman, 2002). As a result, there has been a fear in establishing these partnerships because of the handled that are presumed to crop up in the process. The possibility of public private partnerships for a community college in a rural area will be significant in community members’ empowerment. Many community empowerment programmes fail because the community colleges do not establish a sustainable structure to run the colleges. The knowledge of how stakeholders such as the government and private investors can come together and establish a sustainable relationship in running a community college in a rural area is more than welcome by the community. Knowing the best partnership to form will be significant for the college in order to establish the way it can attain its goal of reaching out to the largest number of community members in its functions. The positive and negative financial impacts of the issue of study In case the college decides to go for a public private partnership, there are two tasks that must be done in order for them to succeed. One involves reviewing, analyzing and recommending draft amendments to the legislation so as to clarify the role of each partner in case the existing one has some loopholes (Zheng, Roehrich & Lewis, 2008). This will make it easy for the college to have a stable starting point when entering into contractual arrangements with the government as well as other private sector providers. Second, the college must establish a need to ensure that minimum standards and regulations governing the partnership contracts are developed to be in line with the college goals (Zheng, Roehrich & Lewis, 2008). If these arrangements are meant before the consideration for the partnership is made, the public private partnership framework will be transparent and will ensure successful development of the projects and services of the college in rural areas. On the other hand, the financial impact of this partnership in terms of the cost is very high and takes time for the project to take off. However, once the project partners are able to fund the initial project phase successfully, there will be investor confidence and the many investors will offer to partner with the projects (Gordon & O’Neil, 2004). This way, the college will have enough finances to run and this will ensure successful implementation of all its projects and goals at large. The potential negative impact of failing to conduct research on this issue Community colleges have in many cases failed to deliver their goals because they fail to understand the importance of public-private partnerships in their engagement. This has made it impossible for communities to be empowered and educated on the real issues that affect them (Wilcox, 1994). As a result, most communities still lag behind in their developmental issues whether economic, social and political. If the possibility of public private partnerships is not researched, the communities will continue to suffer negligence and underdevelopment. Moreover, in addition to enabling the projects succeed in the communities, it will save private sectors resources in the form of taxes because the government will play part in the project. Many promotion community involvements or community participation do not succeed because organizations fail to understand their level of participation (Kasper, 2002). For example, the community college will be able to know the best way to implement its projects, the advantage of government participation in their project and this will lead to community empowerment. If this research is not carried out and recommendations given, the college may enter into a partnership with the government without taking into consideration the basic risk measures and this may lead to unsuccessful implementation of their projects. References Barlow, J., Roehrich, J. K. & Wright, S. (2010). De facto privatisation or a renewed role for the EU? Paying for Europe’s healthcare infrastructure in a recession. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 103, 51-55. Gordon, K. G. & O’Neil, D. V. (2004). Performance Measurement in Public-Private Partnerships: Learning from Praxis, Constructing a Conceptual Model. Paper presented at the American Society for Public Administration 65th. National Conference, Portland, Oregon, March 27-30, 2004. Kasper, H.T. (2002). The changing role of community college. Occupational Outlook Quarterly, 46(4), 14–21. Spackman, M. (2002), ‘Public-private partnerships: lessons from the British approach’, Economic Systems, 26(3), 283–301. Wilcox, D. (1994).Community participation and empowerment: putting theory into practice. Brighton: Joseph Rowntree Foundation Zheng, J. Roehrich, J.K. & Lewis, M.A. (2008). The dynamics of contractual and relational governance: Evidence from long-term public-private procurement arrangements. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 14(1), 43-54. Read More